Cooking Across 4 Generations

On the last day of our trip to Geneva,  after I dragged Mr. CA4G to look at some posh cutlery, we came across Halle de Rive on Boulevarde Helvetique. A ‘covered market’, it was full of little individual shops/stalls selling all manner of edible deliciousness.

Upon entering our noses were joyously twitching with the aroma of many types of cheese. There were 3 cheese sellers, several boucheries (butchers)  and  poisonniers (fishmongers), along with fruitier (fruit and vegetable) and several charcuteries (smoked goods like bacons, hams and cured sausages etc).

You could buy the raw ingredients or there were also many ready to heat options available too. For example, cooked Nicaraguan lobster with a filling of Russian salad CHF25 per half (around AUD$35.60).

And many types of salads ready to go.

Civet de cerf (deer stew) in the front, caramelized chestnuts in the back and on the right vol au vents with a chicken, veal, ham, mushroom and veloute filling. Buy your filling, get the vol au vent shells and heat at home.

In the next photo is the chicken, poultry and game shop which also sold the fat of duck, chicken and goose, sausages, terrines and pates made from the birds and small game. There are signs for foie de lapin (rabbit livers), foie de volaille(chicken livers), terrine de canard(duck terrine) and terrine de volaille(chicken terrine) all with prices per 100grams. The brown tins in the front contain Terrine de lievre( hare terrine).

Here is one of the seafood sellers. Those huge prawns/shrimp at the front of the display came from the Atlantic side of the USA and were CHF80 (approx. AUD$114) per kilo. They were around 5cm across and were the largest prawns we had ever seen. They possibly weighed close to 200 grams each. I think they could be a bit tough though. Any salt water fish are obviously imported. There were several types of fresh water fish as well, mostly caught in the lakes and streams in Switzerland and neighbouring countries.

Boucherie, look at the size of those ribs!! Those sausages looked mighty tasty too. It would be nice to rent an apartment for a couple of weeks just to go shopping in this market so I could cook.

Charcuterie with pates,  terrines, jambon(ham) amd petit terrines and pates en croute. Would have been perfect to grab some charcuterie items, cheese, bread and salad, then sit and have a picnic by the lake.

Our favourite section, one of the fromageries. So many types of cheese, it was a shame we didn’t find Halle de Rive on our first day in Geneva. Although I guess we might have bought too much cheese to eat. Choosing a cheese might have been hard too, so many types/varieties that we just don’t find here in Australia.

Most of the fruit and vegetables are local. All items have a country of origin and there were even some that had country and town/area of origin. Prices were quite high, you can see the melon on the left is CHF8 (approx. AUD$11.40) per kilogram, green plums(prunes) in the front CHF10 (approx. AUD$ 14.25) per kilogram. It makes me feel even luckier to live in Australia when I see price comparisons like that. Although I have to say you often see a larger array of varieties and often rarer varieties when travelling.

Behind the wall on the left is Bistrot Halle de Rive a restaurant where you could enjoy a meal before or after shopping.  Or further along on the right is a coffee seller if you need a caffeine hit.

Hope you enjoyed a quick look at Halle de Rive, Geneva. Keep an eye out for more of our Geneva trip coming soon.